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Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Not Oppressed Enough : Being the Wrong kind of Ex-Muslim

*All screenshots are from public posts*Click screenshot to expand-----For those asking over the past few days, wtf happened to start these mob attacks on me: Well...I'm not entirely sure, because they sort of came out of the blue. There's a general rift in left-leaning atheists and right-leaning atheists. And 'right-leaning' is seen as some sort of slur, when it's just an observation based on the politics coming from some of these types. If you're anti-left on everything, and rarely ever anti-right...it says something. Especially today. Oh - and there's no gold star for seeing the most obvious flaws on the right, like Trump or Alt Right nationalists.However, this split continues to become more pronounced in these times of the rising far right. While lefties are looking to focus some of their criticism there, others are trying to resist and silence that criticism.

Basically a few days ago, some dude I had never heard of, called @FuriousFossa was upset that I tweeted about not knowing what Taqiya was till I got on twitter. Despite growing up in Saudi. Because this didn't confirm his previously held beliefs, what good are ex-muslims if they can't confirm your bullshit views?! Then, someone upset him further by saying that people using that term while criticizing Islam are usually bigots. OMFG the B word!! We have to be extra PC with that word, so as not to upset the delicate sensibilities of the anti-PC, anti-sjw crowd, why can't everyone know that!!

And I'd agree, people insisting on using that word are usually pretty loony...(as was proven in this case). I've got news, Muslims can lie without any special religious permission. Just like any other theist. They aren't religious robots & this isn't a widespread muslim conspiracy to deceive people. It's a niche concept that most aren't even aware of. And I mean, there's just so much actual terrible stuff that is commonly practiced in Islam (polygyny for one) to criticize anyway, there's little reason to cling defensively to obscure things like Taqiya. Here's another ex-muslim perspective on this:

Fossa was also upset I wrote something (to someone else, not him) about how pointing to ISIS is a great whataboutery tactic for apologists of the western right. Just point to ISIS, it'll always be worse, and you're off the hook.

That's it two strikes for me, and he decided he wanted to disprove my entire background and lived experience. This way, you know, once I was totally discredited...at least he'd know I was wrong about the concept of Taqiya, and he was right!

Trying to prove me dishonest, after being upset I didn't confirm his views on a dishonesty concept in Islam....almost like...trying to prove me a taqiya-er. How taqiya-esque.

It got me accusations of deflecting away from the obvious point that ISIS is worse (which i'm sure I've said myself roughly about 9465 times. I just don't feel the need to utter it every time... with literally any other criticism of anything other than Islam.

It also got me accusations of trying to deflect from criticism of Islam.

Yeah. I'm sure it does take a little more than a bio,
maybe like years and years of work of criticizing Islam, that are useless
now apparently because I also criticize the Western right.
These criticisms can't get any less intelligent, honestly.

***Then...of course, Lalo - always on the lookout for jumping on any criticism of me, Joined in and helped to float the conspiracy theories to a larger audience (who knows why - I've barely interacted with the guy in ages...he's still always infuriated with me). And then Yasmine, who, it seems, had it out for me since we had a private falling out during Gad's last unhinged meltdown at me.

Because she, as my friend, publicly tweeted how those attacking me, and me were equally 'embarrassing' or something. I tried to privately discuss it with her, she deleted her tweet I believe, but it was clear she wasn't too sympathetic to the attacks on me because, she tweeted I was equally embarrassing..and because I criticized Gad/Rubin's far-right associations in the first place. People she clearly considered allies. I was pretty disappointed and put off, but my reaction was not to go out and slander her. I just silently disengaged and went about doing my own thing, which still included criticizing Gad and Rubin's shady associations. Of course, silly me. I didn't learn or keep my mouth shut after the last round of baseless attacks. Lalo even tried circulating the 'she's not a real ex-muslim' thing that time, but I think it got lost in Gad's endless stream of hate.

Then months later, this happened. This time Lalo got more traction. ***The Nitty Gritty
Gather round peeps, I’m gonna share a really absurd tale about supposed ex-muslim allies, supposed critics of sjw style 'oppression olympics' and sjw ideological purity tests…but who are now furious because an ex-muslim they disagree with ideologically/politically in their minds was not oppressed ENOUGH.

A fellow ex-muslim, that I have personally promoted, jumped in happily to weigh-in on the drama and attempt to negate my lived experience by claiming I just *dabbled in oppression*, haven’t truly experienced it or anything… My life was like a 5 star resort apparently...and everyone else seems to be a good judge on what kind of life I had in sharia-land.

I wasn’t oppressed enough in Saudi fucking Arabia…This is a *real* objection raised by some, including a fellow ex-Muslim.

Let that sink in.

It's not even by people I actively debate or disagree with…but people I have little to no interaction with.

They don’t understand the first thing about life in Saudi, none of them have lived there.. but are telling others far and wide what my life experience was like. They are giddy from having ‘exposed’ me, caught me out in some lie about the duality of life in Saudi Arabia as an expat. They've been working hard for this one.

Oh my.

Whatever will I do now. They’re on to me.

Not like I’ve podcasted about the duality of life in Saudi here, here, here, or here….and not like i’ve specifically addressed this strange juxtaposition in articles myself or anything. I have never claimed to be the most oppressed person in Saudi Arabia, quite the opposite in fact. I have always talked about being lucky to have the kind of life I did there. But, despite that...my life certainly wasn't free from the application of Sharia law, from standard Islamic theocracy regulations, that were just absorbed into my life as 'normal' because I knew little else.

Yet - They have clipped some audio, from *my own show*…that I do *publicly*…to demonstrate how ‘dishonest’ and contradictory i’ve been.

Great question indeed. Maybe try checking out the work of the person you're accusing,
your question might be addressed in
the very episode you're clipping.
(click to enlarge)

(let me come out and say now that I’ve lived in both Saudi and Pakistan, lest they do some other genius clip about my ‘contradictions’ ..sometimes you will hear me talking about going to school in Saudi, sometimes you will hear me talking about going to school in Pakistan. It’s because both are true… not because I’m a secret spy or Taqiyya-er who can’t keep her lies straight)

This is almost too easy to mock and ridicule, I feel embarrassed for them, I do, and I’d normally just ignore insignificant people.. but they keep going on and on. They keep being told how wrong they are at each turn too. Brutal.

But they’ve backed themselves into a corner now… the only thing they can do is double down and lash out at me…Not admit they made a mistake or something, and were wrong to accuse me based on zero evidence. That would be the decent thing to do.

A lovely summary from the 'detached-from-reality' point of view, calling me an insult to women and ex-muslims suffering under sharia, this was posted on lalo's public thread.

I imagine this will only get crazier as their rage grows…because they cannot discredit me based on things I’ve been entirely honest about. Since I'm the wrong kind of ex-muslim, I do not get the charitableness anonymous ex-muslim accounts they don’t have issues with get.

Mostly, people on both ends have an issue with me because I refuse to pick a team. I think criticizing both Islamic far right and western far right is important. And I think in Trumpian times, It's vital to focus *some* of my critique on the western right and its apologists. When that toxic stuff overlaps with criticism of Islam, it does nothing but muddy the waters, and hold back valid criticisms from resonating with the mainstream.

***

Know this:

I do not exist to confirm any narratives.

I occasionally deviate from my appointed role as provider of anti-Islam masturbatory material.

I exist simultaneously as an ex-muslim woman who grew up under Shariah(that’s right I said it again), who will harshly criticize Islam when relevant, as an expat from Saudi who will tell you that in some bubbles life in Saudi was pretty secular at times, and as a *Western* liberal feminist. So I will have critiques of western sexism and misogyny too. And I will speak up against anyone pitting different aspects of my identity against one another. Do not use sharia to silence western feminists, and do not use western perspectives to silence women who speak up about hijab, etc. This is whataboutery.

Women everywhere should want to better their situation. We are far from perfect equality even in the west.

I am happy to criticize feminism when it goes off the rails, but I do not buy into the “feminists are the real sexists” bullshit, or the western feminists should stfu because they aren’t getting stoned to death.

Anyway, I will have happy memories of my childhood in a secular compound in saudi…I will have tales of women bathing topless at my compound pool…and I will also have tales of being forced into a black bag against my will because of the ‘Muttawas' or morality police as we called them. I will have tales of having a great secular education, and I will have tales of horror where I, only a child, saw my mom’s ankles hit by a muttawa’s cane because her headscarf slipped in the market. I will have tales of being shepherded quite literally with sticks by morality police in Mecca who herd the women hastily into a segregated prayer area for women. I will have tales of being pushed to the ground and almost trampled because of the morality police forcefully segregating us in Mecca. I will have a story or two about running…being chased by muttawas as they yell behind me for my headscarf slipping…of narrowly making it into a car that was driven for me (because I did not have the right to drive)…and of the muttawas catching up, and grabbing on in vain to a little bit of black fabric as our car sped off and it slipped through their hands. I will have such stories of escaping the morality police in the street.. and of feeling fear, and… of feeling comfort ...that for some hours I had a compound to go home to…and to shed the black cloaks that I wasn’t given a choice on. A reverse amish compound as I’ve literally referred to it before.

I encompass all those identities and I’ve repeatedly, honestly explored them with my audience…I’ve pointed to the absurd duality. Yet the internet mobs who hate me (which only used to consist of islamists at one point..but now they are fewer than the rabid western right wing apologists) have portrayed this as some great shady conspiracy. Some incredible contradictory set of stories that simply cannot be consolidated.

It must be that I’m lying about one or the other.

“Either you grew up on a compound, or either you grew up in sharia - which is it” — heaven forbid they put some thought into it and realize, well… oh…it can actually be both! Imagine that.

(click to enlarge)

Cue fellow ex Muslim, previous guest of my show Yasmine to jump in and cast further doubt. She posts an ad for the most extravagant compound in the entire country, and projects that onto my experience. My compound was nothing like Aramco, it was incredibly small and modest in comparison, but thats irrelevant, even if it were Aramco I'd have to experience Sharia every time I left. My life was not better than the life of most Canadians because I was still forced into a black bag against my will, pretty much every day. Morality police and their canes were a regular sight, I had few rights as a woman. But sure, please go out of your way to discredit my lived experience.

Why they did this appalling thing, and insisted on it even after being told how it could be both...is beyond me.

Real classy.

Lol, cuz growing up in Saudi in a compound is TOTALLY like vacationing in the nicest hotel in Havana for a few months.

Cue random person who just isn't satisfied:

Not good enough apparently.

Still not good enough.

"I don't like what Ali had to say so I'm going to fill in my own details despite never having lived in
Saudi or knowing anything about life there." "Eiynah barely left the compound, went to school on the compound"

Umm, No. Actually I left the compound every day, to go *to* school. I just love that details about my life are authoritatively being discussed, without any actual knowledge, ffs. Yes I barely ever had a real conversation with a Saudi,
I've talked about this several times. It doesn't mean I didn't speak to Saudis on a daily basis in the markets,
and shops, etc. It just means I never actually had the chance to know a Saudi national closely and have a proper conversation with them because we were kept segregated. Something I have discussed repeatedly.

Not even multiple corroborations of this reality are convincing enough. No no, everyone who says this is lying, but these random internet people who know nothing about life in Saudi, are here to 'non-Saudi-splain' to me that my experience is inauthentic, that I’m an embarrassment to women who *really* live under sharia. I'm just an imposter, who lived under sharia but also had access to a community pool. So you know, discrediting my story is fair game. I also had air-conditioning. The luxuries I’ve been hiding from you all.

This is the same group of people mind you, that get upset when people try to discredit Ayaan Hirsi Ali's lived experience of being a victim of FGM. But because I don't fit the mould they'd like me to, and also will criticize people within the islam-critical scene. You can make comics to mock and laugh at my life experience.

Minus the *face* covering, both those pictures were my reality actually.

Surely anyone with a shred of principle would object to random false accusations being used to smear someone. I mean these ‘principled' types are out in droves when someone slightly misrepresents Richard Spencer the nazi or Milo. “I don’t agree with their ideas but” just doesn’t extend over to ‘the wrong kind of ex muslim’ I guess.

----Worse still…Yasmine, once a friend…someone who’s had a terrible experience under Islam no doubt.. I would never discredit her experience despite her vicious attacks on me, She’s someone I empathized with, with all my heart.. But somehow she has it out for me because I’m, you know, a shit disturber who derails from *only* criticism of Islam, by having a problem with fellow atheists when they promote rape apologists or… white genociders… why can’t I just keep my head down and perform the role that is laid out for me as an ex muslim? Criticize islam, thats it. ----

This is especially funny because the example of loony he uses is someone normalized, legitimized
and promoted by..none other than the person he's defending. Also what is up with the weird
mentions of "loyalty", like if you've disagreed with me on Rubin, no need to be "loyal", just be honest.
I won't respect that view, but it's better than dishonesty.

Yeah its totally mental and a delusion of grandeur to expect someone like Rubin who claims they are liberal
to not promote rape apologists, like they've done nothing wrong...or white genociders. This is a convenient strawman
of my position on Rubin, used repeatedly. I don't care if he aligns with me on every single thing, I enjoy some of Sam Harris' work, I don't agree with him on everything (as you might have noticed on my episode with him). I enjoy some of Maajid Nawaz's work...I don't agree with him on a lot, since he is an adherent of religion and I'm not. Heck, I don't think I agree with anyone on everything. But I do expect people to at least not look the other way on *rape* apologetics, white genocide, Islamism...important values like that matter to me. they aren't some tiny, nitpicky details. For some people , I guess opposing *only* Islamism is important. (Oh, and not like I'm currently being targeted for a difference of opinion). Ah, the lack of self-awareness.

pic: via @vinikako

@NiceMangos@AkiMuthali It struck me as I was writing it that the people who've been going after you lately seem to want to establish an orthodoxy for ex muslims.

Whatever mine and Yasmine's differences on Rubin were...was no reason to jump on the Lalo bandwagon to openly try to discredit my entire existence with no evidence. To post tasteless memes about me trying on some oppression, just dabbling in it for fun.

A) "Dabbling in oppression." What kind of person do you have to be to say that sort of thing-
and without any intimate knowledge of the person who's life you're talking about.

B) It's not all about passports, but yes to a great degree, people in Saudi are valued more in the workplace
depending on their passport - another thing I've talked about on my podcast. However, when living in Saudi
I had a total, bottom-rung, treated like garbage Pakistani passport, not a Canadian one. Wrong again on all counts.

C) I hope you don't ever criticize concepts of white privilege or PoC being romanticized, because that doesn't come close to this level of "oppression olympics". It's just so so callous, can't wrap my head around this.

I’m at a loss for words, honestly. I wouldn't have expected stooping to this level.

Though, things got a bit weird with her after Trump won, she was overly defensive about criticism of Trump voters. Since then, I’ve seen her compare DNC/Keith Ellison situation to Nazi Germany… in this TRUMP ERA

… I’ve seen her rejoice at the GOP winning….

I'm sorry but "I'm so glad GOP won" isn't a liberal sentiment, even if in response to Linda Sarsour,
who's basically the flip-side of the problem to Rubin.
Another sanitizer, downplayer, legitmizer of another far-right. But somehow calling out
this version of far-right apologist is ok!

… I’ve seen her downplay the inhumane 'Muslim ban' that separated families. That could have potentially prevented people like her, from escaping the ME when they needed to. The idea that people around the world could be upset at the principle, despite a lack of their personal involvement... why is that so hard to grasp?

I'm happy to call out Linda Sarsour for this. But this is the same issue I take with Dave Rubin,
he is masquerading as a liberal or at least pushing / doing apologetics for right wing conservativism, imo
- And some people obviously prefer if you call out only *one* side of this.
But sadly not only do they prefer it, they go after you in mobs,
and try to discredit your entire being for speaking up on both.

My concerns of the easy slide to the right are pretty self evident. This is something ex-muslims are particularly vulnerable to, I myself have been courted by the right. But actively resisting it in the face of rising popularity isn’t something everyone can do. It's why I'm not too bothered about popularity. I'll happily take being less popular and more consistent.

Anyhow, she’s used this whole dumping on me process to tag Rubin in a tweet…and whaddaya know… get a spot on the Rubin Report, as I had predicted! Prove me right, that’ll show me!

***

I guess it means that there’s not many of my views that they can effectively argue against if my critics have to resort to weird conspiracy bullshit about me not really being who I say I am.

Imagine how stupid and risky it would be to make claims about being an ex-muslim from Saudi growing up under sharia and then to do a podcast series talking with people who lived there for real (unlike me)… about the details of life there. Why would I put myself in that situation? And if I wanted to make up my story, why not make up full oppression to the worst degree. Why this better compound life?

Lalo know’s that I’ve seen my mother hit by morality police, he knows these experiences but still wants to question and delegitimize. These are the same people so disgusted (rightfully so) when Greenwald misrepresents Sam Harris. How are these guys any better I ask? If we cannot have standards simply because someone is Islam-critical, then we are no better than the Greenwald's we so love to criticize.

#NotShariahEnough

Lets remember what’s really important here though... I am not oppressed enough. I am just pretending to be because it’s hip.

Thanks Yasmine!

So being forced to wear a hijab can be oppressive even in Canada (I agree).
But being forced to do so by the state in Saudi is just 'dabbling in oppression'...like life in a 5 star resort!

It's baffling, it is.

But the only ongoing beef this crew has with me is over a difference of opinion on someone like Rubin or Douglas Murray. Inevitably, if you probe their criticisms of me they end up around the fact that I don’t like Douglas Murray, that I had the audacity to have Sam on my show and do something other than talk about what we already agree on (yes, Islam sucks), that I had the audacity to ask Sam his views on or make him aware of what other prominent atheists are doing, that I shouldn’t criticize Rubin (no matter how much evidence I have) - It’s petty to go after bad actors on this side apparently. But its incredibly noble to go after Werleman, or Reza Aslan or Linda Sarsour or Glenn Greenwald.

Opposing bad ideas & apologists for people with bad ideas consistently is ‘tribal’ & ‘petty’. Picking a side and avoiding self-criticism is truly rational.

Heck if I thought that way, I’d never have left Islam. (But have I really? how will we ever know?)

Yup, its the #RegressiveLeft that has a monopoly on not tolerating dissenting views. Meanwhile Lalo blocked me long ago for having a conversation on MY podcast, with someone entirely unrelated.. whom he claimed to not even know… sure never mind it was known anti-muslim conspiracist who thinks Maajid Nawaz behaves like an Islamist. And Obama may have been a secret muslim. My questioning Robert Spencer so deeply offended Lalo, the champion of tolerance and rationality…

lol.

And remember, I'm the one supposedly with 'mental' 'delusions of grandeur' about people having to align 100% to my views for me to like them.

Now we’re at a point where the desperation to discredit me for wrongthink is so evident… my criticism of Rubin, Gad and co is based only on what they actually say or do, observable facts, I am happy to provide proof for any allegations of them promoting far-righters or even to talk to them, but none of these Classical Liberals wish to engage with the actual criticism, and none of them want to talk to me.…

So - in retaliation for my evidence based criticism I get smears based on nothing…and some onlookers think this is a tit for tat. It’s being framed absurdly, as an equivalence. Which I will object to every time.

Lol, I'm the monster for objecting to what Rubin does.
Not Rubin, for promoting rape apologists.

And, this is the passionate defense Rubin gets..that doesn't even
engage with the criticism of him. It's not who he has on, but how he talks to them.

Yes, my cunt-like overreaction after days of being dragged through the mud, consisted
of me simply saying its 'bullshit' to equate me with the people smearing me.
And not to tag me in such tweets again.

Imagine if someone you considered a friend and ally suddenly interjected themselves into
a public smear campaign about you, simply to put out a false equivalence to tens
of thousands of followers.And basically say, 'its not my problem'...so they're all cool.
Well, I guess it'll be #NotYourBeef next time someone is slandering Ayaan, as well.

I mean of course, if someone finds themselves caught in an awkward position, theres the option
of just steering clear and not involving yourself. Which I'd totally respect. But if you're going to
publicly say they're A-Ok after what they did to me, then I will always object. #WhatACunt, couldn't
even graciously accept a respectful equation between people lying about me, and me.

I'll say this again, I’m criticizing someone who is promoting far-righters in an environment ripe with hate crimes (very much the flip of what Linda Sarsour does with Sharia/Saudi Arabia, etc.)…There’s a legitimate reason to do this… this is not about hating someone personally. It's as necessary imo,
as this very group of people think their criticisms of Cenk, Reza, Linda, CJ Werleman are.

The attacks on me are however are just pure hate…disagree with my actual views any time. I'd welcome honest disagreement, but don’t lie about me ffs. As Lalo says:

The Irony.

If I respond and defend myself against such baseless accusations I’m accused of being the petty one who just won’t shut up and let people spread lies about me. Ugh Eiynah….why so petty? Why can’t you just let people say hateful ridiculous stuff about you? The other 'petty fight' she's referring to below, is the previous Gad meltdown. Which consisted of days of him bashing me as an 'anonymous troll', 'Queen of anti-semites', 'plumpy pineapples'...because Jerry Coyne posted a pretty mild (evidence-based) comment of mine about Gad and Rubin promoting far right peoplelike Tommy Robinson, PJW of Infowars. His meltdown is documented in this thread.

Anyhoo, I wanted to make note of this instance for just how crazy it has been. Who knows where we’ll go from here…this is the ‘community' that supposedly values evidence but has few issues with the guy who legitimizes Infowars while crying that mainstream media are fake.

This is the community that is constantly, (rightfully) upset at Ayaan being silenced for her harshly critical views on Islam, but won't really care if some from within are trying to silence ex-muslim views on the internal problem of legitimizing western far-righters. If you care about ex-muslims and muslim women's rights so much...you should technically care if the people potentially mistreating them are muslims or western far righters.

On paper many will have the correct answer to opposing the right wing hijack of criticism of Islam, but putting that into practice, gets met with resistance and character assassinations as you can see.

They call themselves ex-muslim allies. Nope… just when ex-muslims stick to criticism of Islam, and serve a purpose…

They are bothered by my anonymity now.. but had no issues with it for years when I mostly just criticized Islam. (They have no issues with more agreeable ex muslim accounts either). Now, I'm this 'divisive' person who won’t stfu about the Western right, when Hitler salutes are in existence again.

Let's stick to the important facts though, it's the left that's always at fault. Misrepresenting even people like Richard Spencer. He's not a white supremacist, silly lefties, he's a white nationalist. Imagine the response at someone being this pedantic about Islamists.

Rubin and Lauren Southern talk about how Spencer isn't really a white supremacist and no one knows the arguments against white nationalism pic.twitter.com/h0y06Uur4T

There are many offshoots to this attack on me too… so many ppl with all this rage uniting against me … its really rather sweet that everyone came together like this to pile on total lies, false equivalences between me and my smearers.

Right, I'd LOVE to see evidence of this. I once long ago said that mocking muslims
as dirty for eating with their hands, is not a legitimate criticism of Islam. This borders
on some real weird bigoted territory. You can't fight muslim bigotry with anti muslim bigotry ffs.
And this woman has obsessively stalked my twitter ever since, despite being blocked.

I'm sure she has no troubling views or anything.

Lol, in this instance its not her, but others are clearly using it to get her on yet another
wonderful, totally liberal show with no history of far right support.

Staunch A (from above screenshot) has residual anger for me, because I wrote a blogpost calling out an anti-migrant publication she worked for. Run by the guy who tweets this stuff:

According to Yasmine I smear everyone, even though she participated in smearing and discrediting *me* completely uninstigated. To them smearing is simply when other people object to their lies. When people defend themselves... its an attack.

Ok then.

This is truly some detached-from-reality, totally lacking self-awareness stuff.

A) Smear someone, sling mud.
B) Post tasteless memes negating their lived experience, because u don't like their views
C) Accuse them of being intolerant of differing opinions
D) Accuse them of smearing *everyone* & mud-slinging, when they defend themselves.
E) Say you're the victim in all this.
F) yes the only reason i'm speaking up about her now in the middle of a smear campaign
is because she's more popular than me. That must be it.

***

If I emotionally distance myself from this cyber-flogging for my crime of blaspheming against Gad/Rubin/Murray it's actually a fascinating case study of in-group out-group politics... and hardcore tribalism from people who are claiming to reject tribalism.

All they can do is think critically about pre-approved opponents Reza or CJ werleman, Cenk, Greenwald, Sarsour… if someone in their perceived in-group has the exact same tactics they’ll go out of their way to demonize anyone calling that out...

Charges against me

I said Yasmine was pandering to the Right and said she was an opportunist for using this specific instance to get airtime on Rubin. - provable through her own tweets, fb posts. Like seriously…she can go around discrediting my entire existence, post memes about me dabbling in oppression to be cool or something, and I can’t even in response point to actual behaviour I’ve observed, that might explain why out of the blue she chose to do this? As someone who promoted her, I think I can safely say she used me and my platform and publicly discarded me when she had no more use for me. I can’t even begin to fathom what kind of ex-muslim would say ‘she dabbled in oppression’ about another.

I criticize Rubin, Gad and Douglas Murray - only ever based on what they actually say/endorse..not on personal attacks. Though Dave and Gad have tried to retaliate via personal attacks. I welcome disagreement with my views, and have offered to speak to them many times. But they avoid engaging with my actual criticisms and avoid discussion.

I say Dave and Gad pander to the right - how is this even controversial? "Mr. Why I left the left, let me work with Dennis Prager on how shitty the left is", and "Mr. 'Trump has the superior position on Islam', and 'let me get Geert Wilders on my show to piss of Eiynah'"

I’m divisive - sure only as divisive as anyone pointing out Islamism is bad and apologists for it are bad.

I deflect from criticism of Islam - um.. nope? Have u seen my work? I just object to people using Islam to deflect from criticism of the western right.

I haven’t been oppressed enough. - Lol

I have not had as hard a life as people who didn’t live in a compound in Saudi - agreed. Never claimed that I did, in fact always have made this distinction, if u only took the time to look into my work, listen to my conversations with Saudi women.

My claim of growing up under sharia is untrue - Nope.

I once said to someone in a Tweet i’ve only personally *met* about 3 niqabis - so I must not know much about oppression/Sharia. Er, no. Having personally *met* and sat down with very few niqabis doesn’t mean i didn’t grow up around them, go on the bus with them every day, see them in the market all around me, see them in every waiting room, community gathering etc, etc. I personally don’t have such a religious family, and we don’t personally know such extreme religious people. I’ve met a handful, and its really uncomfortable talking to people in a black mask. I’ve lived around them my whole life though, and probably had many insignificant interactions with them. But no, I just don’t *know* many is all.

My ex muslim story is so dubious that even EXMNA had to reject me - Nope. Refuted. But not retracted, by Mr. Honesty himself.

It was mean of me not to graciously accept Michael Sherlock’s public false equivalence of people who smear me and me, right in the eye of that storm. I said that’s bullshit, so its understandable he jumped to “You are the monster u revile” “You are a crazy cernovich conspiracist about Rubin” (yeah ok if u think cernovich is crazy, then u should have no problem with the fact that i think Rubin normalizing cernovich’s craziness, is crazy) and then “cunt” x 2. - I’ll say it again…what an asshole thing to do to a friend…I have not known Michael to be like this, so I’m wondering if he was abducted by aliens or something ? Or if my criticism of Rubin had been building up as some sort of anger towards me? I don't know.

I’ve said before that in Saudi many of us weren’t aware of the extent of how barbaric some of the punishments were - like of course we heard about public beheadings and those rumours circulated, they weren’t publicly discussed or acknowledged in detail because…as any idiot would know, life in Saudi Arabia is a heavily censored in many ways. One of the most censored and silenced topics is the violation of human rights in Saudi. This doesn’t mean I have no experience living under sharia, it means this is one of the effects of living under sharia ffs. Information is kept from you in an Orwellian way. #NotShariaEnough indeed. Where else do you live under fear of morality police, think sneaking around with alcohol (moonshine) as a teenager could lead to death or deportation, where else are you forced into black bags without your consent? Where else do you live life as a woman knowing you are a second class citizen. That if you are potentially raped, there is no real recourse. Where else could you experience morality police canes?

I once said this to a guy in very frustrating conversation, where not even this was as bad as sjws to him.

which is presented by my critics as me saying all people who like or have been on Dave's show are fans of white supremacy and rape apologetics. Now if you actually read what I said, it says…”if you don’t have a problem with the promotion of those things” , clearly.. you’d be a Rubin fan… this is pretty self explanatory I think. But by now you’ve seen my critics aren’t very smart at all. Dave Rubin demonstrably promotes white genociders (a white supremacist conspiracy theory that builds fear about interracial 'breeding') and rape apologists unchallenged, laughed Mike Cernovich's rape apologetics off as 'Rattling Cages' ffs. This is one of the main criticisms against him. If thats fine with someone, or they are happy to look the other way because he serves some other agenda of crushing the evil SJWs who run the world…. then why would they NOT be a Dave Rubin fan? If you can overlook these things, yeah you'd be a Rubin fan. Im sure many people are Rubin fans just out of ignorance though, who aren't aware of the bigger picture or details of the kinds of people he's promoting, because he doesn't present these troubling guests accurately. In fact he presents them in the best light possible, as allies. But if you know, and don't find it to be a problem that's troubling.

I hate that Dave Rubin talks to controversial people - No. I’d be fine with his exact same guest list if he simply challenged these guests on some of their disturbing views, or if he at least made his audience aware of why these people are controversial in the first place. Instead it’s a nodfest. This is very harmful, especially in this political climate. And has visibly made the atheist scene toxic and overlap hugely with infowars /alt-lite/alt-right audiences. I actually really enjoyed David Pakman's interview with Richard Spencer. He did what Rubin pretends to.

I'm just like a Muslim apologist who says non-muslims don't have a right to speak about Islam, riiiight. Because thats what I'm saying here (below). Doesn't matter that I've stood up for diverse opinions on Islam, multiple times, *Even non Muslim ones* (and this doesn't mean all opinions should be free from criticism). Just because I don't think Lalo's simplistic views are very relevant in the grand scheme, I'm somehow stifling his right to speak. Yeah, I totally want Sharia law in the west so no one can speak ill of the precious religion I left behind. The thing I've observed about Lalo is that he's not very knowledgeable, and it would greatly help if he had first hand experience at least. He wishes he could speak with the authority of someone with first hand experience on Islam...so he wants to discredit the people he hates, that do. I'm sure there are a lot of topics he could have interesting views about, things he has personal experience with. But he's rather obsessed with Islam...so here we are. Lalo can spend days spreading lies about me, and thats not a problem to Yasmine...but if I express an opinion on how relevant I think he is....I'm basically a Muslim apologist who wants Sharia law.

I am somehow upset with Yasmine because she's more popular than me..haha. It certainly couldn't be that I decided I will no longer be silent about things I've observed about her, only *after* she contributed to negating my entire life story. Because those things might help to explain why she went after me like this. Also, last I checked I had quite a lot more followers, undoubtedly she'll get more if she goes the Rubin/Gad/Lalo route..but it hasn't happened just yet...so that too, is just false. I also said she was pandering to the soft right, not that she is right wing.

Ok but with Brilliant arguments like this, they definitely got me here:

Clearly this is a contest between Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and Dave Rubin. Because Jihadis will always be the worst, undoubtedly (and we come full circle from how this started with Fossa being angry 'I deflect from Islam')…I guess worrying about the rise of far right hate and extremism in the West where many of us critics of Islam live, is just silly and frivolous. Not like the US has stepped few decades back in the past months or anything. Nothing to see here. Promoting white genociders and anti-feminists should proceed as normal.

Sadly this is the state of self proclaimed liberal twitter atheists, they resort to fox news tactics.
And I'm not supposed to notice there's a problem.

Why can’t I just pick a team and stfu with all this inconvenient in-group criticism. It’s tribal *not* to.

Such a smeary cunt-monster cuck, Eiynah. And I bet you haven't learned your lesson yet, about staying silent on these things. I bet you think the resistance to this shows just how important this topic is to discuss. No ideas above scrutiny, freedom of speech, etc.

How about now? Will you be quiet now?
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Nope.

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Thanks to those who stuck by me during the smear campaign. Thanks to those who are real friends, and thanks to those who support my work. New Patrons and old. Much love to you all.

15 comments:

Most of these people aren't worth a fraction of your time. Forget the noise. Keep on doing as you've done for years and find your *best* adversaries and engage *them*! Otherwise you'll go crazy! Hugs. https://xkcd.com/386/

Thank you for staying around through this mudslinging shitstorm. It's unfortunate that people will glom on hate thrown by their side or people they identify with, without checking facts or seeing through their biases. I hope that some people will realize the mistakes they made and try to bury the hatchet.

You are one of a dwindling number of voices in this sphere with any intellectual honesty. I hate that this is a thing but I am grateful for your voice and your perseverance in the face of so much bullying and unfairness.

Holy crap bud! Going through that & then *documenting* it must have been a real trial.

What is behind this "petty" stuff is essential work of setting the record straight. There are Right Wingers that don't give a fuck about Ex Muslims, yeah knew that - but that ex Muslims would get themselves into such a JihadLather over you & it's not your mangoes - that's rather sad & surreal.

This is no longer simple ignorance of what "the Left" is due to our disappearance as Social Democrats & Reds - along with the Overton Window shifting to the Right. The New Center vid on Rubin exposed this beautifully.

This is Salami Tactics as the next in line to be discredited are the Liberals & anyone that doesn't fall in line. There is a Right Wing orthodoxy and all weapons are brought to bear against it's enemies. One of those is ex Muslim issues, and as you are not the *Right* kind of ex Muslim, so you must be discredited too.

As a Leftist, I don't think you are Left, but a damn good Centrist & Secularist. When you promote Free Speech, I know it's from a good place. It's between you, Namazie & Hiba Krisht is a lot of sanity with principled critique.

This "but she lived in a compound!!" shit is just unbelievable. It's like saying "but they had the ghetto!!" about Jews in Warsaw in 1942.

Women always "live in a compound." At home they're allowed to walk around bare-headed, and if they spend their whole lives at home - well that's just fine then, isn't it. Purdah is fine, the seraglio is fine, Kinder, Küche, Kirche is fine. Women at home and men in the world; what's not to like?

There's no part of the internet free from this kind of bullying. It's shameful. I'm sure they would have picked on someone else if you weren't around to be the target this time. I've been targeted this way before, my best advice is to leave the internet for awhile.

Good stuff! Feels as if people like Rubin are becoming alt-right apologists (similar to the left's Islam apologists) under the veil of free speech. I mean, it *is* free speech, but having nothing but an echo chamber of alt-righters on your show and not challenging them and continuing to give them a platform can be dangerous. There needs to be some give and take. Rubin goes on in his video about how he is still liberal that he is for a strong public education system. But, I heard no banter or complaints when Betsy DeVos was put in place as the Secretary of Education. He only seems to moan and groan when the left does or says something stupid, but never the right. And this can give people the wrong ideas. I've still yet to see a tweet from him uttering a single complaint or comment about Trump. He's for marijuana legalization too, but he's made no comments on Jeff "good people don't smoke marijuana" Sessions when he was made Attorney General? But he'll always be on the lookout to retweet an anti-liberal message, where, even if it's deserved, it feels like the same effort in nitpicking the bad things on the right is nowhere near the same level.

It feels like an explosion based fundamentally on a difference of opinion on definition:1.) "Lived Under Sharia Law" : Lived under Sharia Law Constantly 2.) "Lived Under Sharia Law" : Lived under Sharia Law whenever I Left the compound (which was a fair amount) and was affected by it to some degree while in the compound (Orwellian information etc) and therefore my life was affected by it as I was growing up

I honestly can't decide if this problem to understand nuance is with twitter or people, most likely a problem with people exasperated by twitter.

Like I can't imagine that kind of shit storm going down in a pub where people can see another person's emotions and reactions in real time and yet I know people are often naturally pretty tribalistic and "binary" something is either true or false, not in between. Which leads to major cognitive dissonance.

I think it's deeply sad that these people don't understand the genetic fallacy, spending more time talking about someone then with them. I applaud you for going so many rounds with them, I wish I had helpful advice. I am tempted to say try and be better than them, constantly, if at a superhuman level you can avoid the genetic fallacy then they can't ever use it against you. However I think that would be fundamentally naive to say that, as not only is it relevant to 'weigh' a story based on its source, I think you were pretty superhuman in this exchange and the sheer volume of manure being piled on you would be difficult to deflect with monk like calm...

What I really wish they could understand is a variety of opinion is incredibly useful. I think people like Ayaan have a powerful voice but if people can't understand that having people who were shall we say "less oppressed" is really helpful to balance out potential bias, as well as those with a bird's eye view. Like we know that Nazis were terrible, not just from a singular jewish person who survived a concentration camp, but from those who fought to escape the camps, those who helped people escape them, the policies written down to declare mass genocide etc etc etc. We also know that the solution to Hitler didn't come from a singular Nazi or a singular Jewish person, but a collaboration of voices and actions (and luck).

All I can offer is a thanks for providing a such an important voice :)

p.s. perhaps this can be summarised in a cartoon, I invisage 2 images, on one side a giant dark looming imam with his arms around a circle that contains buildings like Schools, libraries, shops, inside that circle there is a small circle with freedoms (the compound) with a girl tentatively putting one foot into the outer circle, she is wearing a school bag. In the other image it's the complete inverse, where the Imam causes a direct terror to an individual girl in the small circle. Emphasising that they are not equal, and neither are good. But I wouldn't have the nuance (or the drawing skill) to show that without demonising all Imams.

Having followed you on twitter and listened to your podcast (a proud recent patreon), I was surprised to see these accusations levelled against you on Twitter. It did seem rather ridiculous, not to mention unsubstantiated at first, and I thought it would blow over. I couldn't imagine the escalation, especially the responses from people who insist that they know more about your life than you do. Let's be honest, even if you were lying, and I do not think so for a minute, these people would have no way of knowing. This reminds me very much of when Omer Aziz accused Sam Harris about his motives and experiences, of which Omer couldn't possibly have any way of knowing. I hope, like you that all those who spoke out to defend Sam then, will be on your side now.

I enjoyed your podcast with Yasmine a great deal and it is a shame that she turned out to be like this. I think a few minutes of air time with Rubin wouldn't be worth it, but hey I'm just a regressive left so what do I know.

I also think that your reaction against Sherlock's intervention was fair. It is not possible to say "I know she accused you being a liar to everyone who'd listen, but I love both of you still and if you don't get it you're a cunt". He seemed to bristle at the fact that you weren't grateful enough, but why would you. Having said that Sherlock seems to be a decent enough person from what I could see so I hope he'll have a rethink soon.

It cannot possibly be nice to suffer this kind of public smearing, no matter how many people are still firmly on your side. I'm just sending this message to say that I'm one of them and hope that you keep up the courage.

"And I mean, there's just so much actual terrible stuff that is commonly practiced in Islam (polygyny for one) to criticize anyway, there's little reason to cling defensively to obscure things like Taqiya." Well yeah but it fits very much in the conspiracy theory of the enemy within, the minority that is part of a bigger conspiracy to violently overthrow and control your society.. kinda like the antisemitic conspiracies of a NWO, a shadow cabal that controls the media "supported" by forgeries like the protocols of elders of zion..

But here ofc its not helped by the fact that yes, there are some groups that want to violently overthrow society, and some of em are islamists(I prefer jihadist terrorists as a term)other white supremacist or neo nazis etc.

I think people are usually blinded by privilege, so a white person that not explicitly doing anti fascist work has little risk to become victim of a white supremacists or neo nazi attack, so its easier to overlook that danger. The perps are also then seen as part of "our" culture while "foreigners"/people who look "the other" fit easier into the narrative of "the other that wants to overthrow us" and so it's easier to feel invested because one feels targeted by "them" And as times show not without reason.. But there are of course white rightwing terrorists who also target western culture while pretending to care about "western values" (because openly advocating for racism, white supremacy, social darwinism and against democracy is not good PR nowadays, so they use everchanging dog whistles and book on the gullible people who want to believe that people mean what they say and not hide their true intentions... unless the people doing that fit into their perception of the dangerous other.)

So I think that's why..well..too many people want to believe that "all muslims" lie (or most of them because their opinion of being a true muslim is inherently violent and oppressive..an opinion they also (because. tbh the misogyny of the right smells similar to the misogyny of the orthodoxy) share with jihadist and sadly far too many muslims I feel who reflexively want to stick together against "the outside"....(seems almost like when white people overlook the growing rightwing/fascist threat because the perps arent really othered and criticism is often spun as on "western culture", by proxy on then no matter how toxic that part of it may be..I'd assume the same thing happens in muslim communities, specially when in a non muslim majority country where people may feel isolated and alienated(a fault of both sides I think) so criticism of religious orthodoxy, sexism, homo/queerphobia & more will be brushed off because they easily can be constructed as racism or "the other" who doesn't like "us" anyways, so the reaction is a closer cohesion which sends all sorts of shitty messages that signal again and again that the community finds this sort of stuff either right or not bad enough to not speak up or thinks that they shouldn't now because people feel attacked anyways....

About Me

I'm a Pakistani-Canadian illustrator/blogger who writes and draws about sexuality in South Asia (mostly Pakistan), religion, politics, feminism, godlessness.
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